The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned, on Sundance Now

Most people still sufficiently value their individuality enough to be terrified by the notion of a hive-mind, or at least we can so hope. Weirdly, the town of Midwich gave birth to a hive-mind, when more than a dozen women fell pregnant under highly unusual circumstances. The kids are not alright and the adults are nervous (at least they should be) in creator-writer David Farr’s The Midwich Cuckoos: Village of the Damned, which premieres Thursday on Sundance Now.

John Wyndham’s novel The Midwich Cuckoos was twice adapted as Village of the Damned, so for American audiences they combined both titles, presumably to avoid confusion. Arguably, this might be helpful, because unlike previous adaptations, this Midwich Cuckoos does not look so much like Village of the Damned.

While family counselor Dr. Susannah Zellaby was in London, an uncanny blackout hit the small town of Midwich. Everyone inside the city limits passed out unconscious, even investigating authorities who entered wearing gasmasks. A few months later, every woman of child-bearing age finds themselves unexpectedly pregnant. Not surprisingly, this causes great distress in many households, until the authorities reveal the big picture.

The national government sweeps in to manage the situation, but Home Office rep Bryony Cummings is surprised every mother decides to keep their bundles of joy. The Midwich mothers grow close to each other, not that they have much choice. The government essentially confines them to Midwich, in exchange for footing all their bills. They also sponsor Dr. Zellaby’s group therapy sessions, which usually also include her own grown but not yet mature daughter, Cassie Stone.

The quickly developing children are intense, but most of the Midwich parents try to kid themselves into thinking they are still healthy and loving youngsters. However, Zoe Moran sours on her Midwich daughter, Hannah, after she uses her Midwichy mind-control to force her Midwich mom to injure herself. Unfortunately, neither Dr. Zellaby nor her domestic partner, Sam Clyde are ready to listen to her yet—but presumably he will soon, judging from the in media res prologue.

The trio of directors, Alice Troughton, Jennifer Perrott, and Borkur Sigborsson, do a nice job building tension, but they were undermined Farr’s terrible aesthetic decisions. Both the classic 1960 film and John Carpenter’s remake of Village of the Damned, get tremendous visual mileage from the eerily similar look of the Midwich children. However, they no longer have the same creepy blond pageboy cut, boys and girls alike. They still share the same cold, distant demeanor, but they now check all the required diversity boxes.

Somehow, Farr completely missed the point that the uniformity of the Midwich children makes them unsettling. They actually illustrate the notion that a lack of diversity is profoundly unhealthy, both in terms of physical characteristics and diversity of thought. In both films, the mere sight of the nearly identical children is enough to jangle viewers’ nerves. Farr denied the series directors that visual shortcut, forcing them to start fresh with each scene.

Domino Day: Lone Witch, on Sundance Now

This witchcraft series might depress the business of hook-up apps. Blame Domino Day. She considers herself a witch, but the way she sucks the life force out of men is very much like a vampire. Technically, she is a lamia, even though she never shape-shifts nor slithers on a serpentine tail. She does not know her true nature, but she intuitively understands it would freak out other witches in creator-writer Lauren Sequeira’s six-episode Domino Day: Lone Witch, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

Day is trying to lay low in Manchester. She works part-time as a barista, but she lives by sucking the life-force out of horny jerks she meets through apps. She never takes enough to kill them, but she always lives them seriously depleted and with their memories wiped. Unfortunately, she did not find her latest victim’s recording device. He will be a problem.

Her ex, Silas was a problem too, but she banished him to an alternate dimension very much like “the Further” in the Insidious movies. Much to her surprise, Silas returns, but he insists he harbors no ill-will. Silas still hopes to harness her power to restore his own magic. Silas’s spell-casting abilities were [justifiably] hobbled by his mother Esme, the governing elder witch for Manchester. Clearly, Day needs help from the local coven that discovered her presence, but she only trusts Sammie, a practitioner of aura magic. In fact, she will have good reason to be angry with Kat, the coven leader, who secretly consorts with forbidden ancestor spirits.

The series has plenty of sexual undercurrents, but Sequeira wisely keeps more bubbling under the surface rather than in viewers faces. Frankly, sex usually leads to very bad things, so it almost offers a weird argument for abstinence. (Of course, there is a long history of vampirism serving as a metaphor for sexually transmitted diseases, so the same can be true for lamias.)

Far North, on Sundance Now

It is not just fentanyl. China also exports plenty of meth and heroin through CCP-connected triad-controlled companies, like the one run by real-life "alleged" drug lord Tse Chi Lop. His drug-smuggling operation built up a $17 billion dollar empire, but his operatives had a devil of a time launching a small boat into the water. Their misadventures become black comedy gold in creator-director David White’s six-part Far North, which premieres today on Sundance Now.

New Zealanders consider the small coastal village of Ahipara to be quite northern, but for the rest of us, it is pretty darn south [pacific]. We would still find it quiet, even “sleepy,” which is why Tse’s outfit chose it for their drop. The four-woman crew overseen (remotely, of course) by his ruthless lieutenant Cai is supposed to sail just to the edge of NZ territorial waters and then bring a massive meth shipment ashore, where their Flame’s gang will take possession of the goods.

Unfortunately, the motor conks out on Cai’s dingy and when they try to cannibalize a part from their crummy trawler they end up with both vessels incapacitated. Jin, their captain reluctantly requests a rescue from Cai, knowing it will further indebt her to the gangster. Since Tse is getting antsy, Cai flies to New Zealand to handle the problem himself, but his two top lieutenants are turned away by immigration. He will have to mount the rescue himself, with only the help of his timid translator, Sam, and five of Flame’s most clueless meatheads.

None of them knows the first thing about boats, which they prove when they buy a barely sea-worthy rust-bucket. They also need someone with a tractor to launch it, so they are referred to Ed. At first, he and his wife Heather assume they are just a bunch of dumb city folk. Frankly, they kind of like the young kids, so they find it strange they are traveling with the bossy Mandarin-speaking Cai, who keeps beaching their boat. As the quick job turns into multi-day comedy of errors, the couple starts to suspect their customers are up to something possibly smuggling related.

There is a lot of absurdist black humor in Far North, but apparently the slapstick futility on the beach is largely based on fact (even some of the dialogue is reportedly taken verbatim form court transcripts). Flame’s lunkheads get a lot of laughs, especially Maaka Pohatu as Stevie, Albert Mateni as Gravel, and Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi as Tall Guy. You really have to shake your head at their stupidity, but it is funny to witness.

However, as a counterpoint, the situation of the smuggling trawler grows increasingly dire as Jin’s crew runs short of food and water. Frankly, these scenes vividly illustrate the viciousness of China’s organized illicit drug trade. It is not just the users that suffer but also the people like Jin, who is essentially indentured to Tse’s company.

Temuera Morrison and Robyn Malcolm are the glue that holds the madness together as the down-to-earth Ed and Heather. They are likably sarcastic, believably rumpled, and immediately easy to identify with. They also have a pleasant, lowkey chemistry together, which is perhaps a fortuitous byproduct of the thesps’ past work together.

Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, on Sundance Now

Unfortunately, you can have a witch-hunt without a witch. However, Sarah Fenn really is a witch, so it is dangerously easy to target her. Supposedly, Sanctuary is a town founded on tolerance, where white magic is legal and law-abiding witches cast spells for the willing. That all changes when her daughter is accused of using witchcraft to kill a popular fellow student in creator-writer Debbie Horsfield’s 7-part Sanctuary: A Witch’s Tale, based on V.V. James’ novel, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

For years, Fenn always felt comfortable in Sanctuary (sister-citied with Salem), because she believed it was a place of acceptance. She also did a lot of favors, including a big illegal one for her mortal coven-member Abigail Whithall, involving her beloved son Dan. Unfortunately, that would be the same Dan Whithall who falls to his death during a raging party.

Rather ominously, suspicion falls on his ex-girlfriend, Fenn’s daughter Harper, who was q   uite distraught when somebody started playing a sex-tape of her and the deceased during the blowout. To make matters worse, some of Dan’s neanderthal friends reveal video of Harper making what they consider suspicious hand gestures. They claim she cast a fatal spell, even though the teen girl has been officially declared non-magical.

Outside investigator DCI Maggie Knight tries to keep an open mind, even though most of Sanctuary immediately turns against Harper. Knight even provisionally clears the teen, but suspicion then falls on her mother, especially when the persecuted teen publicly accuses Dan the Man of forcing himself on her, after plying her with drugs. That sets his mother Abigail and her wealthy doctor husband Michael on the witch-hunting warpath.

To say Horsfield lays on the witch-hunting persecution themes heavily would be an understatement. Yet, it still resonates in this era of trial by social media and cancelation. Horsfield might be aghast if someone suggested Sanctuary was a Kyle Rittenhouse allegory, but his supporters could surely draw parallels. Regardless, it is a vivid illustration of the principles explained in Charles Mackay’s Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds. When a lot of people act collectively on emotion, they can do truly heinous things.

In fact, the toxic social dynamics of Sanctuary are quite believable, especially thanks to Horsfield’s drop-by-drop escalation. These teen characters are absolutely awful, but maybe that makes them true to life. Hazel Doupe’s portrayal of Harper Fenn might be the one notable exception. Viewers will feel for her despite her record of spectacularly bad decision making.

Litvenenko, on Sundance Now

In 2018, the “Salisbury” poisoning attacks on Sergei and Yulia Skripal fatally killed an innocent British subject, who had no connection to Russia whatsoever. It was a pretty brazen assassination attempt on British soil, but obviously Putin was not very impressed by the UK government’s response to his previous hit-job executed in England, against a naturalized British citizen, back in 2006. Of course, the authorities had to provide some proof before taking punitive action. That was the job of various detective and investigators of New Scotland Yard, whose procedural work drives the four-episode mini-series, Litvenenko, written by George Kay and directed by Jim Field Smith, which starts premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

It is spooky how much the once-and-future Doctor Who David Tennant looks like Alexander Litvenenko, especially during his death bed scenes. The former FSB agent and outspoken critic of Putin’s “mafia state” (his own term), defected to the UK, becoming fully naturalized literally on the day of his poisoning. Initially, the somewhat fictionalized DI Brent Hyatt is not sure how to proceed, when the still living Litvenenko tries to report his own murder, like Edmund O’Brien in D.O.A. However, the interview tapes he records with the poisoned man supplied the foundation for the marathon investigation that followed.

Hyatt worked murders, which is a serious responsibility within the Yard, but a case like this was transferred to Detective Superintendent Clive Timmons, who oversaw the counter-terrorism office. He kept Hyatt and his DS attached to the case, because the DI had cultivated the trust of Litvenenko’s widow, Marina, and for his expertise investigating homicides. The case gets personal for Hyatt, since he saw Litvenenko waste away in the hospital. He also has his own scare, when the forensics department finally identifies Polonium 210 as the lethal agent involved. It is one of the deadliest Polonium isotopes known to man, but it is only produced in Russia.

Kay and Smith do a remarkable job establishing the damning case against Putin, without miring the series in minutiae. After watching Litvenenko, you should be able to shut down any of his internet trolls who haven’t been drafted to be cannon fodder in his invasion of Ukraine. Obviously, this is an opportune time for series about Putin’s disregard for international law and human rights to release. However, it is most of all a cracking good police procedural-geopolitical spy thriller-hybrid.

For a change, Neil Maskell gets to play an unambiguous good guy—and he is terrific as Hyatt. The rapport he develops with Margarita Levieva playing Litvenenko’s widow is quite poignant. The same is true for his unfortunately limited scenes with Tennant in the doomed title role. It is sadly but necessarily a small part, but Tennant is totally convincing. Frankly, they needed someone of his caliber, to show how Litvenenko’s principled persona could take on such heroically tragic proportions.

Close to Me, on Sundance Now

If Jo Harding had to lose a year to amnesia, her most recent would be the one to forget. Her dog died, she finally checked her dementia-plagued father into a care-home, and she bitterly quarreled with both her son and her best friend. It is unclear whether it is any consolation, but she also suspects she was having an affair. With whom, she has no idea. Bits and pieces will come back to her in Angela Pell’s six-part adaptation of Amanda Reynolds’ novel, Close to Me, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

Harding took a bad step on her staircase and suddenly one year was gone. (Honestly, the disorienting tile pattern of their foyer could make anyone swoon.) Or was she pushed? That is what she starts to suspect, even though the doctors warn her she will be a bit spacy and “disinhibited” for a while. Frankly, it seems like she was always a little blunt, at least judging from the confused flashbacks. Regardless, she will be a lot for her husband Rob to handle. He was the one who found her bleeding at the bottom of the staircase and he has been acting super-squirrely ever since she came to.

In terms of tone, Pell’s adaptation is like a more sexually frank Mary Higgins Clark thriller. It is very much a woman’s story and a domestic setting, but the relatively small circle of characters rather limits the potential field of suspects. Rather awkwardly, Jo Harding can really be a pill, both pre- and post-accident. After five and a half episodes with her, we were almost expecting a meta revelation, in which we learn it was a group of exasperated viewers who pushed her down the stairs. It is also unclear whether this was an intentional strategy to play up her status as an unreliable narrator or some dubious characterization choices.

Moloch, on Sundance Now

It is the most important part of fire and brimstone. You can’t have apocalyptic wrath without the fire and a messianic lunatic appears to have the uncanny power to control it. The shadowy figure with the demonic moniker instills fear and paranoia throughout Paris in Arnaud Malherbe’s six-part Moloch, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

Louise Joli is an intern going nowhere at a French newsweekly, until she uncovers some fresh information on the unexplained combustion of a merger & acquisitions hotshot. It turns out he was a patient of Dr. Gabriel Matthieu, a psychiatrist who will also treat the traumatized young son of the second immolation victim. It turns out the doctor also has a horribly tragic backstory that must be relevant in some way.

Joli and Matthieu start off badly when she clumsily tries to trick him into revealing confidential patient information. However, as the killer continues to ignite new victims, the shrink and the aspiring journalist agree to work together. Most of the responsible French society is gripped with fear, but the anarchist protestor demographic starts to embrace mystery fire-starter dubbed “Moloch” as a cult hero. Tensions really explode when Moloch torches a thug who controlled a housing project the media refers to as a “sensitive neighborhood.”

Moloch could have leaned into its horror elements much more heavily, but Malherbe and co-writer Marion Fetsaets emphasize the investigational and psychological dynamics just as the fantastical premise. There are definitely eerie moments, but the genre ambiguity is one of the things that makes it so intriguing.

A Discovery of Witches, Season 2

You remember from Ghostbusters how bad it is when cats and dogs are living together? It is even worse for vampires and witches. Nevertheless, vampire Matthew de Clairmont and Diana Bishop, an American witch, have fallen in love, but it is a romance forbidden by the terms of the uneasy truce governing vampires, witches, and demons, the weird kind. Yet, fate and a missing book of alchemy seemed to have conspired to bring them together. However, to stay together and escape their enemies, the two lovers had to jaunt back in time at the conclusion of season one. Getting back will take some doing in season two of A Discovery of Witches, which premieres tomorrow on Shudder and Sundance Now.

It is a bit awkward to hide out in during an era of literal witch hunts for a witch like Bishop. It just so happens, her beloved de Clairmont was one of the most ruthless witch-hunters. He was also a faithful French Catholic, but he loyally served Queen Elizabeth, doggedly persecuting his co-religionists. Such is vampire politics.

At least she is impressed to learn he is also known as the poet Matthew Roydon during this era. One of his great friends is Christopher Marlowe, a demon with a serious case of bro-jealousy. Understandably, it is a bit tricky for de Clairmont to remember what he exactly was doing four hundred years ago, but he will fake it as best he can, while Bishop seeks out the training to spellcast their way back to their proper time. After years of being “spellbound,” her powers have only just resurfaced, so she does not yet understand their full extent or how to properly control them.

This review is only based on the first four episodes of season two (out of seven), because time is limited for us mortals. Still, we feel safe in saying the general quality is consistent with the first season. Particularly notable are the depictions of historical figures, which are much more fully developed than mere gimmicks. Barbara Marten is a kick chewing the scenery as the Machiavellian Queen Elizabeth and Tom Hughes does some of the best work we have ever seen from him as the temperamental Marlowe. However, it seems rather a shame to have the great Lindsay Duncan sidelined for so long, as de Clairmont’s regal mother, Ysabeau.

Shadow Lines, on Sundance Now

Finland has the dubious legacy of the term “Finlandization,” describing their formal neutrality, while falling ambiguously within the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. This cloak-and-dagger miniseries depicts the secret (partially fictional) history of how it happened. The strategic decisions made by the Finish Security Intelligence Service are questionable, but least they try to avert a Cuban Missile Crisis-style threat to global stability in Kirsti & Katri Manninen’s ten-part Shadow Lines, which premieres tomorrow on Sundance Now.

Helena Korhonen pursues her studies in America as best she can, despite still suffering post-traumatic stress from WWII, until she is targeted by an act of not so random street crime. Calling the panic number her godfather, FIST-division spymaster Yrjo Ylitalo gave her, Korhonen is whisked backed to Finland by real-life socialite Tabe Slioor. Cleaning up the incident, Slioor discovers the attacker wore Soviet-manufactured shoes (a plot thread that is left hanging in season one.)

Maybe not so coincidentally, the women share a flight to Helsinki with Donald Walker, the replacement CIA agent for the one killed during FIST’s bungled U.S. Embassy break-in. It was an operation Julius Boije conducted with his partner and fiancée, but regrettably, he was forced to kill her shortly thereafter, when Ylitalo’s agency busybody Aune Lyytinen discovered she had been turned by the KGB. Soon, Ylitalo manipulates Korhonen into taking her place, to exploit Walker’s obvious interest.

They are concerned about CIA attempts to bolster the presidential campaign of the pro-Western candidate, whereas Ylitalo favors the candidacy of Urho Kekkonen, believing the Soviets will return their Naval base “leased” on Porkkala to reward his overtures to the USSR. However, a cabal of KGB and Red Army officers hoping to depose Khrushchev, in favor of Molotov, have developed a potential ICBM that could reach DC, if launched from Porkkala, so they are determined to keep it. Meanwhile. the deeper Ylitalo draws Korhonen into his web, the more she suspects he has lied to her about her own origins.

It is a shame John le Carré just passed, because he would have appreciated the complexity and moral ambiguity of the Manninen mother-daughter tandem’s tale of historical espionage. Ylitalo and FIST engage in all sorts of dirty deals and double-crosses, but in their case, they do it all in the name of neutrality. If anything, they cost their nation a degree of autonomy, given the censorship exercised on the USSR’s behalf during the Finlandization era (for instance, Billy Wilder’s One, Two, Three was banned for twenty-five years). It is also worth noting all the American characters who die in Shadow Lines are killed by Finns (albeit in one case, by a KGB turncoat).

Frankly, things get exponentially more complicated than a brief thumbnail can convey, especially when Lisa Salmen (codename: Lynx) shows up. The Finnish-émigré-turned CIA agent is supposed to be one of the show’s villains, but she is too much fun to root against when she rolls her eyes at traditional rustic Finnish delicacies.

One Lane Bridge, on Sundance Now

It is sort of like Queenstown’s answer to Nanjing’s Yangtze River Bridge, an infamous spot for suicides, but it is far less urban. It is also a frequent site for accidents and at least one murder. That case will be a trial-by-fire for a go-getting young Maori detective recently transferred from the big city. The case will uncover small town secrets and his own latent second-site abilities in creators Pip Hall & Philip Smith’s One Lane Bridge, which premieres this Thursday on Sundance Now.

Ariki “Ricky” Davis took the transfer to advance his career and to train amid the wide-open natural splendor of Middle Earth, New Zealand. At first, he thinks he will get along just fine with his superior, senior DS Stephen Tremaine, until he starts questioning the local veteran’s handling of their investigation into a prominent farmer’s death. Everyone remembers Grub Ryder as the young teen with enormous potential, but his grown-up years had not been kind. With the 100-year-old Ryder family farm on the brink of bankruptcy, Tremaine is eager to chalk up his death to suicide. However, Davis has good reasons for his doubts.

The Maori detective had not experienced “Matakite” visions since his childhood, but he is suddenly flooded with them after stepping foot on One Lane Bridge, where Ryder presumably plunged to his death. From time to time, he sees Ryder and other apparitions of those who died on the rocks below. For some reason, he is also seeing Tremaine’s wheelchair-bound wife Lois in his waking dreams. As gossip starts to spread, motives surface that force Tremaine to re-open the investigation. Unfortunately, Davis’s increasingly twitchy and erratic behavior might just undermine his career, before he closes his first real case in Queenstown.

OLB looks terrific thanks to the sweeping natural backdrops and stylishly mounted supernatural Matakite sequences. It also boasts a considerable number of highly complex characters. However, the pace is a bit slow at times. Frankly, the six-episode narrative probably could have been boiled down to four installments and been stronger for it.

Harkness’s A Discovery of Witches

All registered users of Oxford’s Bodleian Library must take an oath promising they will never remove any volumes (or set any fires therein). Nothing in the collection should ever be lost, but an extraordinarily rare alchemical manuscript has been mysteriously missing for centuries, Yet, somehow, a visiting American scholar is able to call it up from the stacks one fine day. She happens to be a witch, but she is not adept at wielding her powers. The uncanny appearance attracts the attention of some very dangerous witches and vampires in the first season of A Discovery of Witches (trailer here), which premieres this Thursday on Sundance Now and Shudder.

Diana Bishop never thought she had much power—and what she had she struggled to contain. Nevertheless, she casually summons thee infamous “Ashmole 782” via a regular materials request. However, when she opens it, all the creatures in the vicinity of Oxford experience a major disturbance in The Force. Rather hastily, she sends it back where it came from, but it is too late. She is now on the radar of some very powerful creatures, who have been engaged in a long-running power struggle.

The two most formidable players are Matthew [de] Clairmont, an Oxford geneticist and 500-year-old vampire, and Peter Knox a sinister witch clan leader, who we quickly learn was most likely responsible for the death of Bishop’s parents. Despite Clairmont’s brooding arrogance and their “cross-species” status, romantic attraction quickly percolates between the witch and the vampire. Clairmont shifts his interest from the manuscript to protecting Bishop, but their taboo relationship raises the consternation of “The Congregation,” the shadowy group regulating the hidden world of vampires and witches (as well as the second-class demons).

Adapted from Deborah Harkness’s All Souls trilogy, Discovery is like the Underworld franchise reconceived for fans of Inspector Lewis and Inspector Morse. The first season fully exploits the Oxford locales, definitely including the cinematic Bodleian, notwithstanding its side trips to France and upstate New York. There is plenty of magic (rendered quite nicely in some quality visual effects), but the narrative is driven by ancient secrets and nefarious intrigues.

Matthew Goode is terrific as Clairmont, fluidly segueing between the aristocratic and animalistic sides of the vampire’s persona. It is some of the busy thesp’s best work since Stoker and Dancing on the Edge. Teresa Palmer develops some potent chemistry with Goode, but the passive nature of Bishop (at least at this stage in the series) might frustrate some viewers. However, there is nothing passive about the great Lindsay Duncan, upstaging everyone as the regal Yasbeau de Clermont, Clairmont’s vampire mother. Unfortunately, the villains are a bit of a mixed bag. Game of Thrones’ Owen Teale probably fares the best as the scheming Knox, but Trevor Eve (who portrayed Jonathan Harker in the Frank Langella Dracula) never looks comfortable as the ruthless vampire clan leader, Gerbert d’Aurillac.

Miami-born Juan Carlos Medina shows he has quite affinity for British supernatural-related material, following up the criminally under-rated Limehouse Golem by helming the pilot and sophomore episodes of Discovery. Veteran genre television directors Alice Troughton and Sarah Walker maintain a consistent vibe of mystery and forbidden romance. The biggest frustration is the ending, which does not feel like a logical breaking point.

Regardless, Discovery is an addictive, binge-friendly series that does not even feel like a guilty pleasure, thanks to the classy sheen (that Oxford tweed makes anything respectable). Great fun for fans of the fantastical (even if they are not familiar with Harkness’s source novels), A Discovery of Witches starts streaming this Thursday (1/17) on both Shudder and Sundance Now.

Next of Kin: Dr. Harcourt Treats Terrorism and Family Dysfunction

Family paranoia. It’s not just for horror movies anymore. Dr. Mona Harcourt always assumed her family were moderate progressive Muslims. After all, she married an Anglo Brit who looks a little like Steve Coogan (he’s actually Jack Davenport). Her brother Dr. Kareem Shirani even volunteers his time at a free clinic outside of Lahore. He is like a young and dashing version of the philanthropist in These Birds Walk, except he is about to be murdered by Islamists. The question will be to what extent was his possibly radicalized son involved? Dr. Harcourt will do her best to protect her family and other potential innocent victims in the six-episode Next of Kin (trailer here), which premieres bingeing-style this Thursday on Sundance Now.

Thanks to Guy Davenport’s new lobbying contract, his career is poised for the next level. Dr. Harcourt’s practice remains steady-as-it-goes and their son Sammi seems to be thriving at school. All appears to be well as they prepare her brother’s welcome home party, but the guest of honor never arrives.

Horrifyingly, their worst fears are confirmed by an internet video. The family is distraught, but the cops are only interested in his son Danish, who apparently dropped out of university without telling anyone. In fact, he is not on holiday in Spain. He is back in Lahore, held as a de facto prisoner by the Jihadist terror group that recruited him in London. As part of a counter-terror power play, Dr. Harcourt is forced to return to Lahore to claim her brother’s body, but that will also give her an opportunity to make contact with her nephew.

Kin is bulging at the seams with unlikely plot twists and uncomfortable family recriminations, but that is what makes it so voyeuristically entertaining. Just about everything under the sun is thrown at Mona and Guy Harcourt, but despite some bitter rows, they stay strong. Indeed, their core relationship is something we do not often see in film or TV, but it keeps us deeply invested.

On the macro side, creator-screenwriters Natasha Naryan & Paul Rutman consistently portray Islamist jihad as a cancerous threat and Western law enforcement as too bureaucratic and petty to provide an effective counter-force, which certainly reflects the state of the world. Over and over, viewers will find themselves face-palming due to the blundering of DCI Vivien Barnes’ special task force. Alas, it is all just too easy to believe.

Regardless, Archie Panjabi is absolutely terrific as Dr. Harcourt. In some ways, she is like a classic Hitchcock protag caught up in grand events beyond her control, but she has the added protective sensibilities of a mother, aunt, and medical doctor. Panjabi develops some unusually warm but deeply complex chemistry with Davenport (who was absolutely smashing as the Machiavellian Earl of Warwick in the recently closed Broadway production of Saint Joan). Viewers will really believe them together as a couple—and root for them.

Navin Chowdry is also quite good as Kareem. Even though his character is killed off early, he continues to be a potent present throughout the limited series. Viveik Kaira is an undeniably intense livewire of barely contained energy as Danish, but the real X-factor is Claire Skinner as the commanding DCI Barnes. Sometimes she has viewers booing in contempt and sometimes cheering at her grit, even within the same scene, but she is never boring.

You need to watch Kin through to the very end, because the closing montage ignited a mini-controversy after airing in the UK. ITV actually issued a statement asserting a certain character’s sudden chumminess with the terrorists didn’t really happen, even though we can see it with our own eyes. That’s right, this series is so paranoid, it doesn’t even believe itself. Yet, it is such a fitting way for it to end. Highly recommended for the skullduggery and if-I-had-but-known melodrama, Next of Kin starts streaming this Thursday (6/21) on Sundance Now.